The Sacred Workplace (Ephesians Sermon 44)

Well this morning as I came to First Baptist Church, 414 Cleveland Street, I came to this place of worship, the sanctuary, which has been such a big part of my life. I was thinking as I walked in here about places of worship that I’ve been at around the world, and I’ve had the privilege of being in sacred spaces all over the world, and I’ve seen a lot of them in Japan, I’ve seen them in the Orient in India. I’ve seen them in Kathmandu and Nepal, I’ve seen them in New England, where I grew up. Probably the most awesome sacred space I’ve ever seen was Saint Vitus Cathedral in Prague, which was started in 1344, it took 600 years to complete. And I’ll just never forget just being in there, and just the soaring sense of grandeur, the greatness of the place, and just how much effort went in over the years to make that sacred space the amazing place that it was. I’ve been in a Shinto shrine in Osaka that was almost a thousand years old. I remember thinking of the antiquity of the place and all of the wood and wondered if it had ever been replaced or if it was original. They had a big iron bell that the priest would clang with this big log. I remember being amazed by that because the priest would clap to get the attention of the gods, and I was thinking about Elijah and the prophets of Baal and “Shout louder, maybe he’ll hear,” something like that, but we serve the living God, but that’s a sacred space for those people in Japan. In Boston, the oldest church I ever worshipped at was Park Street Church right on the Boston Commons. It’s the oldest place of worship I’ve ever actively worshipped in. I’ve also walked through the Old North Church in Boston. That’s the “one if by land, two if by sea” church for the night of Paul Revere’s ride. I’ve stood in the church where John Calvin preached in Geneva and saw that, and it was just an amazing thing for me to be there.

Last summer, Calvin and I were at the Wittenberg church where Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses. It was under massive construction, it was a bit of a let-down. I remember seeing the cement mixers, and the chain link fence and all that and I wasn’t feeling like it was much of a sacred space, but it’s the oldest and I would say probably, the most famous Lutheran Church in the world. All of these sacred sites have moved me in different ways.

The only biblical place I’ve ever been to was Mars Hill. I got to climb up that little rocky outcropping there where the apostle Paul preached his famous message in Acts 17, it’s there printed in Greek in a plaque at the bottom. I remember being especially amazed at the top, because the tips of the rocks were all polished like glass. They were shiny like glass. No intention had gone into that, but just the feet of pilgrims over hundreds and hundreds of years, just polished it smooth. The oldest place, sacred space, I’ve ever been though was right near that. That was the Acropolis which was a shrine to the goddess Athena, the goddess of wisdom for which the city of Athens was named. It was built around the time of the Babylonian exile. It’s the oldest place of worship that I’ve ever been to.

Now all of these sacred spaces, all of these places of worship, are as nothing compared to the heavenly shrine that we’re going to be worshipping God at in all eternity. And the significance of the move in the new covenant from a sacred space where you go and where you worship, that one location where the temple was in Jerusalem, where all Israel would come three times a year and make that pilgrimage and go to that sacred space and worship there, that has been fulfilled, that imagery has all been fulfilled in Christ. We don’t need to make those kinds of pilgrimages anymore. As Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, “Woman, believe me, the time is coming where neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” That unfolds the truth that we learned about God in the Old Testament, the words of the prophet, Jeremiah. Jeremiah 23:23-24, “‘Am I only a God nearby, declares the Lord, and not a God far away. Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’, declares the Lord. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?”, declares the Lord.” We worship an omnipresent God. We worship an immense God who fills Heaven and Earth, and there is no space that can contain God.

Stephen picked up on this theme, when he was proclaiming, effectively, the end of the animal sacrificial system, the end of the significance of the temple there in Jerusalem, he saw it clearly. They killed him for it. But he saw it clearly, and he said this in Acts 7:48-50, “The Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says, ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Or where will my resting place be? Has my hand made all these things?’ And so they came into being.” And as Paul said in that very spot that I mentioned earlier, in Acts 17, “The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not live in temples built by hands, and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything, for he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.”

So we Christians in the New Covenant, we’ve come to understand the omnipresent God can and should be served everywhere at all times. Every square inch of the universe belongs to God, Almighty God. Every moment of time is his. Abraham Kuyper put it this way, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence, over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine! Mine!’” And yet, for all of that, there is such a thing as holy ground in some mysterious way. God was every bit as omnipresent back in the old covenant as now, and yet he did say to Moses, “Take off your sandals, for the ground on which you’re standing is holy ground.”

So what is holy ground? What is a sacred space? It’s a place where we can encounter the living God, where he’s choosing to reveal himself. And we can have a relationship with him, and we can encounter him. So this morning what I want to do is I want to set apart the Christian workplace as a sacred space. A place where we can, indeed, where we must encounter the living God. I want to ennoble your work, I want you to see the value of your labor every moment, and to see that it’s an act of worship if you do it by the power of the Spirit in obedience to the Word of God. You are able to offer up a living sacrifice, every moment in the workplace. Not only able but you must. So what that means is sacred space could be for you an office building, it could be a cubicle. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? I’ve worked in cubicles multiple times. I had three different engineering jobs, after I graduated from MIT. I worked for a company that made ion implanters. If you want to know what that is, I’d be happy to tell you. Come after, say, “What’s an implanter?” I’ll tell you all about it. But I worked in a cubicle there, vertical carpet and all that, that was my sacred space. I also worked for a company that made eye surgical equipment and I worked for a company that made hot chocolate machines, so all different kinds of jobs. And it was my desire as a Christian to be filled with the Spirit every day as I went to the workplace. I wanted that place to be the focus of my ministry, I wanted it to be an evangelistic place, I wanted it to be a place where I could offer up to God my engineering work as a sacrifice. I didn’t do it well every day, but that was my goal. So that could be your sacred space. It could be a surgical operating room, it could be a board room. Maybe you’re an executive. It could be a counter at Chick-fil-A or McDonalds, if you can believe it. How could a place like that be sacred space? But it’s all in the attitude you bring to the work you do. Holy ground.

Now here I’m trying to sweep away centuries of false teaching that we see in the Medieval Roman Catholic Church. They established a kind of a hierarchy of value, the holiness of work. And it was captured by fourth century Catholic historian, Eusebius. This is what this man said, “Two ways of life were given by the Law of Christ to his Church. The one is above nature and beyond common human living, holy and permanently separate from the common customary life of mankind. It, that pattern of life, devotes itself to the service of God alone.” So, there you have the retreat from the world, the asceticism, the monks, the nuns, the clerics. They’re separate from normal life, they’re fasting, they’re praying. It’s a higher way of living. Such then is the perfect form of the Christian life. “And the other more humble, more human permits men to have minds for farming for trade, the other secular interests as well as for religion. And a kind of secondary grade of piety is attributed to them.”

We’re sweeping all of that away today, that is completely false. Medieval Catholicism there had that hierarchy, there was the sacred and the profane, or secular. That’s what profane meant, it’s secular. So the sacred would be popes and cardinals and priests and monks and nuns and all that, and they lived a separate kind of life. And then profane, secular, would be everybody else, and they would do work as peasants, as farmers, as tradesmen, different work like that. Now Protestantism came along under Luther and the other reformers and it established what was there plainly in scripture, the priesthood of all believers. And Luther and others took that to the degree of looking again at work, at the work that we do. Martin Luther said this, “When a maid cooks and cleans and does other housework, because God’s command is there, even such a small work must be praised as a service of God, far surpassing the holiness and asceticism of all monks and nuns.” Far surpassing, the work of a maid in cooking and cleaning. He also said this, “Seemingly secular works are a worship of God and an obedience well pleasing to God.” And again Luther said, “Your work is a very sacred matter, God delights in it. And through it, he wants to bestow his blessing on you.” Subsequent generations of Protestants, of teachers of the Word of God, wholeheartedly agreed. The Puritans came along and established this kind of teaching as well. William Tyndale said this, “If we look externally, there is a difference betwixt washing of dishes and preaching the Word of God. Externally, yes. But as touching to please God, no difference at all.” William Perkins, another Puritan, said this, “The actions of a shepherd in keeping sheep is as good a work before God as is the action of a judge in giving a sentence or a magistrate in ruling or a minister in preaching.”

So this morning, I just want to sweep away the idea of ‘secular work.’ By that, I mean secular, and we’re seeing that in our increasingly atheistic culture. The word secular means religion-free, God-free, so that your work zone is a God-free zone. We’re not bringing God into that. It’s secular, it’s a secular thing. Well, we Christians should never do that. There should never be secular work or that kind of worldly work, for the Christian view of work is that everything done by faith in Christ by the power of the Spirit for the Glory of God is sacred, no matter what your employment. So I want you to see your workplace as a place of worship where you must encounter the living God, where every action of your employment can be a living sacrifice offered to God.

Now look again at the text, if you would, and I want to make some comments about it. Ephesians 6:5-9, reading this time from the NIV, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them, not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly as if you are serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. And masters treat your slaves in the same way, do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in Heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.”

Now, I want to just make an aside about where we’re going in the preaching ministry in Ephesians. I’m well aware that in talking about employer-employee relationships from Ephesians 6:5-9 is making a bit of a leap of interpretation. The text doesn’t say employer or employee, it says masters and slaves. So what I want to do this morning is I want to talk about work. If I could just sum up this sermon, it’s about work.

Next week. I want to talk about slavery, and the following week I want to talk about racism. So those are the next three sermons. This morning, work, then slavery, then racism. I feel that these are helpful topics for us, and it will be increasingly helpful. Like next week’s sermon, what I want to do is face square on the question, why isn’t the New Testament clearly abolitionist? Why does Paul seek to manage slavery here rather than just abolish it? So I’m going to try to give the best answer I can. That being able to defend the Bible as a timeless and living document is going to be increasingly needed in our age. People will bring up slavery and talk about it, especially related to things like LGBT things. It’s going to come up and they’re going to say, “Look the Bible is clearly obsolete. Look at the topic of slavery.”

So, hopefully next week I’m going to give you a way to answer any accusations against the Bible, and talk about why Paul doesn’t clearly sweep aside slavery. And then the following week, I want to zero in on the phrase, “There is no favoritism,” and just address some of the incredibly controversial and hot topics that have been going on this summer and just some of the heritage, the history, and how the Bible answers the issues of racism and where we can go from here. So those are the next three weeks, God willing.

I. Understanding Work Biblically

Now, let’s look at this morning at work and employment. And let’s begin by just trying to understand work biblically. The Greeks, into which the culture Paul was writing, looked on work as a punishment. How many of you have ever done that? I look on work as a punishment. I’ve heard it, I’ve heard it said by those near and dear to me, people I cherish have looked at work as a punishment. Maybe it doesn’t help that we sometimes use work as a punishment, maybe that’s not helpful, I don’t know, maybe not good parenting. But at any rate, the Greeks did see that. They looked at it this way, that work was a curse, the gods hated mankind and so they cursed us to work while they lay around and eat heavenly grapes and eat ambrosia and drink nectar all day long, whatever that is for them. That was their view. Work is a curse.

Even within that, they had a kind of a similar two-tier view of work that I described earlier. There it’s not sacred and profane, but it was more intellectual and menial. They would divide it in that way. So Plato and Aristotle, and other philosophers promoted a two story concept of work, that the majority of men should do the heavy lifting, menial labor, that the minority like themselves might engage in higher intellectual pursuits like art and philosophy and politics. So that’s the way the Greeks tended to divide up work.

Now for us as Christians, we know right from the beginning of the Bible, our God is a worker, not an idler. And so, from the very first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth,” and Genesis 1 pictures a very active creative God who creates the heavenly realms and separates the waters above from the waters below, and separates the sea from the dry land, and creates vegetation and creates the animals, and the birds of the air, and ultimately creates man in his image. So God is a hard working creative God and he delights in his labor, enjoys it, finds pleasure, and he looks over all that he’s made and behold it’s very good. So there’s just a beautiful pleasure of God and work, and on the seventh day he rested from his work. So that’s how the Bible begins.

Then Christ as he comes in, he teaches us some things about God’s work that maybe we could have figured out, but that Christ told us in John 5:17 when they’re accusing him of working on the Sabbath. Jesus said, “Actually, My Father’s always working, to this very day, and I too am working.” We come to realize theologically that if God ever stopped working, the universe would stop existing. God created a dependent universe that needs his energy and his work. It’s not an independent thing, it needs God to work on it to keep it alive, keep it existing. So, he’s always working.

And then God gave to Adam and Eve, to the human race, creative work to do. Genesis 1:26-28, “God blessed them, male and female, and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth, subdue it, rule over it. Rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’” So here’s this beautiful fresh perfect world waiting to be explored, waiting to be filled and subdued, whatever that means, but there’s going to be this creative labor. And there are certain types of plants that could not spring up apart from human cultivation. And so, God gave us work to do and that was before the fall, dear friends. Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to serve it and protect it, to work it and take care of it.” And so work is a good gift from God. Our work is not a curse, rather our work has been cursed, and there’s a world of difference between those two. Our work is not a curse, but our work has been cursed.

And so in Genesis 3, we know what happened with Adam when he fell into sin, God cursed the ground because of him. And he said, “Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life, it will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field, and by the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground since from it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return.” So we are now laboring and struggling in futility, in cursed labor, to just scrap out an existence because of Adam’s sin. And so the greatest curse of all on work is ultimately futility, emptiness, working on something that doesn’t come to fruition, that in the end comes to nothing, that sinks back down into the dust.

Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 says, “What does a man get for all that toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun, what do we get for all that? All of his days, his work, his pain and grief. Even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless,” and this repeated phrase, “a striving after wind,” that’s the curse on work, you’re laboring on something that comes to nothing, dust in the wind. Now as the Bible unfolded after Adam’s fall, there would continue to be inventiveness, creativity, people developed metallurgy, they developed different technologies, and the human race has advanced since then. But the work has always been a labor under Adam’s curse.

Now, in the history of Israel, we know that they fell into bondage, into slavery, and how the Egyptians made their lives bitter with hard bondage and toil, and with the whip of the slave driver, and they worked them ruthlessly, Exodus 1:14. After the exodus, God regulated work in the Ten Commandments, he said, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, do all your work in six days and rest on the seventh, for God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh.” So here work is commanded, labor for six days, but it’s also limited. Rest on the seventh day as God did.

Now Christ is the end of the world, he glorified labor. No one has ever been a better example of what I’m commending to you today than Jesus, namely finding joy and delight and relationship with God through your work. Nobody did that better than Jesus. Jesus said, as I already quoted, “My Father is always working and I too am working.” In effect, Jesus plainly said “The only work that I do is the work the Father is doing.” So, what the Father is doing, the Son joins the Father in it, and they work together. What a beautiful picture of work that is. He actually said at the time in John 4, the Samaritan woman, he said, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work.” This is My food, it gives me energy, it gives me pleasure to do God’s works. And he said at the end of his life, praying to the Father, “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work You gave me to do.” Jesus is our role model for work.

Now as we go on, as we look ahead, you may wonder where are we heading, pastor? Where are we going with this work thing? Are we going to work in Heaven? What about the New Heaven and the New Earth? Will there be work there? Friends, I believe with all my heart there will be work in Heaven, but it won’t be cursed. Think about all of the redeemed from every tribe and language and people and nation, remember what God said at the time of the Tower of Babel. If, as one people, speaking one language they’ve begun to do this, then nothing they propose to do will be restrained from them, they can achieve anything. Imagine though, instead of doing it to serve our own glory, like they did at the Tower of Babel. We would build and construct things in the New Heaven and New Earth for the glory of God to show our capabilities for his glory. And we will be like as one people speaking one language, building for the glory of God.

Now I’m going to talk more about this verse next week. But Revelation 22:3 supports what I’m saying, I think. It says in Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible, “No longer will there be any curse,” amen. “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and… “ Listen, “his servants will serve him.” So I’m going to talk more about that verse next week. We’re going to work. No failed projects, no deadlines. How cool is that? We are going to labor and it’s going to, it’s going to work out, it’s going to be successful. And what feeling of joy we’ll have, not pride, but worship to God that he gave us these hands and these minds to be able to create things. That’s what I think we’re heading toward.

II. Paul’s Commands to Slaves: Serve Christ in Your Work

Now, let’s look more specifically at what Paul commands to slaves and then to masters. First, the basic command is, “obey your earthly masters.” What we’re looking at today is a special category of work which is work done in submission to God-ordained authority. That’s not all of the work. There’s just some things we do on our own, the work we do around the house or whatever, but here we’re talking about work done at the command of another person. So he gives commands to the one receiving the command, the slaves, and then he turns around and gives command to the one that gives the command by God-ordained authority, the masters. So we’re looking at commands to the slaves, those in submission to God-ordained authority, and he’s commanding obedience, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them, not only to win their favor, when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart, serve wholeheartedly as if you are serving the Lord, not men.” So fundamental to Paul’s doctrine here is the God-given right to command, that God delegates authority to creative beings, to people, and they have the right to give commands to others. That’s foundational to human society.

So in the American workplace, in our workplace, it comes down to the boss’ right to give work to the employees and the requirement for the Christian employee to do what they’re told to do, that we see God in all of that. It is the boss’ right to command within the boundaries of the work, and it is the employee’s responsibility to obey. Now, obviously, we need to limit this as we’ve said before. The boss’ right to command is not universal. The boss isn’t God. Peter said, “We must obey God rather than you.” he said that to an authority figure. As I said in a recent sermon in terms of submission to God-ordained authority, God-given authority can never command God forbidden activity. God-given authority can never command God-forbidden activity. So we are going to evaluate the commands given to us and be sure that that’s not happening. But in every other respect, when an employee willingly and skillfully and cheerfully does everything commanded by the employer, it is glorifying to God. It’s glorifying to God.

Now he says, obey your earthly masters, in the Greek it’s “masters according to the flesh,” so he’s kind of limiting. The implication is, they have a limited scope over you. They don’t own your soul. So there’s a limit there. And it also implies their authority over you is temporary, it’s limited. There’ll come a time, it’ll be over. But in all of that, we should obey as if we were obeying Christ himself. Look at the text again, “Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.” Verse 6, “Obey them not only to win their favor, when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.” Verse 7, “Serve whole-heartedly as if you were serving the Lord. Not men.” He says it three times, “Just as you would obey Christ,” “slaves of Christ,” “as if you are serving the Lord.” It’s very plain. So the idea is to look beyond your earthly boss and see Jesus behind him or her.

I think about this in the Hall of Faith in that great Hebrews 11 chapter, Hebrews 11:27, it says, “By faith Moses persevered… ” listen, “as seeing him who is invisible.” Hard to do sometimes. I’ve had some bosses that cast a looming shadow in front of Jesus, and you had to kind of look around and it was hard to see Jesus behind them. It was hard. But we have to do it, we have to do it. So when your boss tells you to do something, eminently reasonable and not immoral, within the job, but it crosses your flesh, annoys you in some way, that’s a key moment for you, isn’t it? That’s a key moment. You should see it as something Christ himself were giving you to do.

For example, let’s say you serve tables. And the owner tells you to bus someone else’s table or do something else. It’s not even in your area of the restaurant. And you’re probably not going to get a tip from it, and you’re probably not going to be thanked for it, but just do it. Key moment! Key moment in your walk with Christ. There’s nothing immoral about the command, well within the purview. Well within the rights. Just do it, do it cheerfully, do it by faith, do it for the glory of God, don’t expect any earthly reward, expect a heavenly reward.

Suppose you’re a nurse and your supervisor tells you to take care of… And there are some of these I guess particularly irritable patients who only find fault with the nursing staff. God forbid, that any one of us should be one of those. Say, “Oh God, give me grace to be a good patient.” I don’t know what kind of patient I’ll be. I think there are days I think I’m going to be one of those, I hope not though, I don’t want to be an irritable patient. But you’re the nurse, and you have to go take care of this. This is a thankless task. And the tendency is going to be to complain, not only about the patient but about the supervisor who constantly gives you the harder patients and all that kind of thing. It is endemic to the American workplace to complain against the boss.

So we need a faith-filled demeanor, we need to do it, it says with respect and fear and sincerity of heart. Paul literally says with fear and trembling, there’s a sense of God in all of this. I want to do this as unto “God the immortal, the invisible, the only wise God, I want to serve him who dwells in unapproachable light.” That’s what I want to do, so I’m going to do it wholeheartedly too, every fiber of my being. I want to give to the Lord the best effort I can for his pleasure and his glory. It is so easy to be half-hearted in work to just get by, to cut corners, to skirt. I’ve seen it done, I’ve done it myself sadly from time to time. It’s easy to mail it in 8:00-5:00, and then the clock turns 5:00, I’m gone. 5 o’clock and zero seconds. Look, I mean, I know the work day needs to end at some point, I’m not saying you gotta put the holy extra five minutes in. Pastor said I had to add five minutes, so I’m not leaving before 5:05. Look, that’s legalism. That’s not what I’m talking about, I’m saying, But look at your attitude. Is your attitude a minimalist, whatever it takes to check the box and get by attitude? That’s what this text removes.

No, because that affects the way you do everything you do throughout the day. It also removes shoddy workmanship, shabby workmanship. You know what I’m talking about? Just cutting corners, doing the cheap thing. It’s almost as though American workers these days are living for the weekend, they’re living for recreation and entertainment and free time and hobbies, and work is some kind of an unwelcome interruption for the true purpose for which we were put here, and that’s eat, drink and be merry. I think we’ve all experienced the frustration of shoddy workmanship in the home. In appliances, Christy and I have some stories to tell about a dishwasher. She’ll tell you, she worked hard to replace our remarkably faulty dishwasher. I used to come, and I’d come down in the morning and it had this little error code on it, and I was like, “Oh God, give me strength.” The one good thing about that appliance, it’s the one you can kind of muddle through without. The washer and dryer, not so much. Kind of hard. But at any rate, just the frustration of the shoddy workmanship, the planned obsolescence. And the text says, “Not as eye service or man pleasers.” It’s like only when their eye is on you, you’re going to behave at a much better level when they’re watching you. When they go away, it’s like this kind of thing, as soon as they turn, sticking out the tongue or something like that. I’ve seen it happen. Maybe not that childish but it’s like the face. Oh, what was that? And they turn back. No, no, yes sir, no sir, I’ll do it right away, sir. But smarmy and deceptive.

I remember years ago, I had a computer-based chess program that I used to play, it had a hotkey that immediately went over to spreadsheet, a fake spreadsheet. It was unbelievable, it was pathetic. And so you’re like, you’re playing chess at work, and then if your boss comes by, bang, there’s this fake spreadsheet. Well, I hope your work has something to do with spreadsheets, because if not, you’re fried. And if they take a close look at it, and it’s doing nothing, it’s just sitting there, it’s like, oh man, that’s a bad moment. Maybe I shouldn’t talk about the bracket challenge and March Madness, but really productivity goes down at least in the state of North Carolina. The kinds of things that happen around that time and I guess it’s all excusable, I suppose.  Now the life of faith is living as seeing him who is invisible, not eye service, not man pleasers, saying, “I’m trying to offer my work to God.” “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

So what does this mean? Well, it means work fully, give 60 minutes of diligent labor for every hour of work, work honestly, don’t steal from your employer. I said in the sermon on stealing, for Walmart and other retailers employee theft is a multi-billion dollar problem. Work, thirdly, skillfully. Develop your craft, get better and better at what you do. Work at it. Study it. How can I be better at X, a year from now than I am now? I’m not talking about making your job an idol and living for it. But I’m just saying be skillful. Fourthly, work wisely, use a high level of craftsmanship appropriate to every level. I remember there was a guy I worked with named Pete, he was a draftsman, a very good draftsman. Very immature, good comedian, did a great Elvis impression. I remember that. Boss came in seeing him do it. That was an awkward moment for Pete. But Pete made this elaborate drawing, that was back before we used computers, before we did CAD, this elaborate pencil drawing of an electronic connector, took him two and a half hours to draw it. It was like Michaelangelo had drawn it. It was spectacularly beautiful. The boss was rightly angry at the waste of time. That thing, there’s a certain drafting protocol that it could have been drawn in 10 minutes.

So, just work wisely, work energetically, full energy. And I mean even an hour after lunch, I know it’s hard. 2:30 in the afternoon, everyone’s sleepy, but just say, “Lord give me strength. I want to work as unto You, I want to give a full day for You.” Work respectfully, don’t gossip or demean the boss. Don’t talk behind his or her back. Don’t tell jokes or demeaning stories. If other employees do, don’t join in with it. Work thankfully, be obviously, clearly thankful you have a job. I mean just be thankful you live in this country, and that you have a job where your needs can be met like this. Be thankful. Thankful for every task you have to do, and work spiritually. Do it with a sense that your work is an act of worship to God.

Now, in all of this, we want to make the gospel attractive. Put the gospel on display. I think the workplace can be one of the greatest places of evangelism there is in America. It’s hard to know strangers in America these days. If you just start talking at the gas pump or the convenience store or whatever, if you’re funny and interesting and don’t ask for anything, they’ll talk to you. But at the workplace now you can develop relationships, long-term relationships with non-Christians. I had a list of all of the people in the engineering department and I prayed for opportunities to share the gospel with all of them, and God was faithful. I think I actually had good full gospel opportunities with three-quarters of the engineers and the technicians that worked in that department. I went after it, I prayed for it, I was patient, I looked for opportunities. But the workplace can be a great place to make the gospel attractive.

Well, all of this, we should be doing with an eye to Judgment Day, we should know, as it says in verse 8, “The Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.” he’s going to return to you by saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” he’s going to give you rewards. You don’t need to be noticed by your boss. You don’t need to do it so you can get a raise or get ahead. If that comes, that’s a sidebar. What really matters is God was pleased with you today, he will reward you. And you’re storing up treasure in Heaven every day by that kind of labor.

III. Paul’s Commands to Masters: Deal Fairly with Slaves

Now let’s talk to the masters. Verse 9, “Masters, treat your slaves in the same way, do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their master and yours is in Heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.” So Paul connects the commands to the master, is what he just said, in the same way. In other words, “by faith, as seeing Jesus, as seeing the invisible one, please treat your slaves that way, knowing that Jesus is behind them, just like he’s behind you.” See Jesus, see Christ in those that report to you. Understand you have a master in Heaven named Christ, he sees everything you do, he will evaluate everything that you do. And he says, “do not threaten them,” or perhaps even literally give up threatening them. I just use a how much more argument. We’re going to talk about slavery next week, but all the excesses of the chattel slavery system, how do they miss this command? Don’t threaten them, but you can beat them. I could easily go into that whole topic now, I’ll wait ’til next week. But clearly, the command here is don’t deal with them having forgotten they’re human and having forgotten perhaps they’re redeemed by the blood of Christ. He’s giving commands to Christian masters here. They are your brothers and sisters in Christ, equal to you in redemption and in reward in Heaven. Remember that. These are temporary roles we’re playing here. So, keep looking at them by faith.

In 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the second edition of her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. And that was obviously a very clear depiction of the abuses of African people in American slave system. Well, that addition, the deluxe edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published with artistic renditions of many of the most poignant scenes in the book. In one of the drawings, the wicked master Simon Legree is beating Tom savagely, while Tom is praying and crying aloud to Jesus. And in the rendition Jesus is behind watching the beating though unseen by Simon Legree. So that’s the idea, it’s like you’re being watched all the time. Everything you do is being seen by Jesus and he is the true King, the true master. And some day you’re going to have to give him an account. You’re going to stand before your Judge, and give him an account for everything you’ve done.

And it says in Isaiah 11:3-5, speaking of Jesus, “he will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears, but with justice and righteousness he will judge the needy and with justice, he will give decisions for the poor of the Earth. He will strike the Earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.” We are going to be called before the Judgment Seat of Christ. We’re going to give an account for everything done in the body, whether good or bad. Masters need to keep that in mind. And so, practically, bosses should carry themselves humbly toward their employees, they should not think of themselves in any way superior to them. I’ve meditated on “There is no favoritism with God.” It’s not an easy phrase to understand biblically. But I think it at least means this: They are every bit as human as you are, every bit as accountable to the judgment seat of God as you are, every bit as rewardable as you are for your works, every bit as redeemable by faith in the blood of Christ. In that way there’s no favoritism, everybody gets treated the same way.

So keep that in mind, supervisors should make sure the workplace is fair and equitable, in which employees have a chance to excel and grow and be developed and be rewarded for their labors. Supervisors should evaluate the performance of their workers with justice and equity and reward it. I was reading an article about Asian sweatshops in a region in the world where there’s a surplus of unskilled labor, those unskilled laborers can be greatly taken advantage of, because they’re immediately replaceable. And they are often greatly taken advantage of, unhealthy, unsafe working and conditions. Limited bathroom breaks. Some of these sweatshops eliminate all talking between employees during the work day. Companies like GAP, Liz Claiborn, a clothing line for which Kathy Lee Gifford was the spokeswoman. Nike, Walmart. All of these have come under criticism for using goods that were put together in these kinds of sweatshops.

The greatest injustice an employer can do toward an employee is to withhold appropriate compensation for the work. Wages, appropriate wages. So James 5:4 says, “Look, the wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty and he will judge.” So the chance of injustice in wages is greater in an age of or an area of undocumented aliens. We were at a meeting yesterday, concerning ministry to refugees, undocumented aliens, and all that, same issue, same problem. The employer can know that the undocumented aliens are undocumented and therefore vulnerable and fragile and can be taken advantage of. That’s wickedness, and God will call people to account if anyone does that. The implication is you should treat your slaves the way you want to be treated, and the way you will wish you had treated them on Judgment Day. Treat your employees that way.

So it says in Colossians 4:1, “Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a master in Heaven.” What is right and fair? Wages for their labor. Respect and commendation for a job well done. And some day you’re going to give an account to your master, and there’s no favoritism with him. And we’re going to talk more about that going forward.

IV. Application

Application, we just start by saying trust in Christ, trust in Christ, the ultimate worker for us is Jesus. His works and not yours, save your soul. We are justified by faith and not by our works, not by our career, not by our skills, not by our labor, we are justified by simple faith in Christ’s work on the cross. His perfect obedience to his Father, his works save us, not ours.

So, I prayed at the beginning if God might have brought someone here who’s unregenerate, you know that you’re outside of Christ, trust in Christ, put your trust in him, and then having done that, you’ll have a whole lifetime of good works that you can do for the glory of God, but not for the forgiveness of your sins, but to glorify him. And then, for all of you who are Christians, just offer up your work to him, offer up your works, the rest of your day, the rest of your week, offer up your labor to him as a fragrant offering, a sacrifice. If you’re in a particularly challenging work environment, I’ve been in some, I had a boss that hated me and I think it was because I was a Christian. I came back from my honeymoon and we had a Bible study going, we had a bunch of things. This guy was an aggressive non-Christian, shut all that down, was a very difficult person to deal with. I’ve had those kinds of bosses. I’m not saying it’s easy. But if you’re able to imbibe the teaching here, God will give you grace to offer up a sacrifice that’s pleasing. And get a big picture of your work, your career, all of that and see how God can use it for the building of Christ’s kingdom.

Let’s close in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we’ve had to look at Ephesians 6:5-9, through the lens of the employer-employee relationship, Father. Help us to take the timeless principles that are here. They’re still relevant, even though chattel slavery is now illegal all over the world, but yet these verses are not thereby obsolete, but that we can draw principles whereby we can work and give you glory. And Lord if you give us time next week to look at slavery and beyond that, at racism, give us grace to hear what you would say to us so that we can live beautiful fragrant lives here in this culture in an age that just so deeply clearly needs the teaching of the Word of God. In your name, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen.

I have been in some amazing places of worship all over the world… even in pagan countries, no expense was spared to make their pagan temples awe-inspiring structures. Perhaps the most impressive place of worship I have ever seen was a cathedral in Prague—the awesome St. Vitus Cathedral; construction begun in 1344, it took over six centuries to complete and it dominates the skyline of Prague; it has awesome stained-glass windows and two soaring towers that reach up to the heavens. A truly breathtaking place of worship. But it’s not the oldest place of worship I’ve been in. I’ve been in a Shinto shrine in Osaka that is at least a thousand years old, with wooden pillars and a massive bell that would sound when the priests would smash a large wooden log into to wake the deities for prayer. But even that’s not the oldest.

I have been in many historic places of worship as a Christian… in Boston, the historic Park Street church is the oldest church I worshiping in in Massachusetts; I have walked through the historic Old North Church in Boston, where the famous “one if by land, two if by sea” lanterns were hung for the midnight right of Paul Revere. I have stood in the massive church where John Calvin preached in Geneva, and looked at the Wittenberg Door where Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses; the door is attached to the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany—the most famous Lutheran church in the world.

All of these sacred sites have moved me in different ways. The only biblical location I’ve ever seen with my own eyes is Mars Hill in Athens, where Paul preached his famous evangelistic sermon recorded in Acts 17. It was actually very moving for me to climb to the top of that tiny little rocky outcropping attached to the Acropolis in Athens… the tops of those rocks were literally polished to a glassy shine by the centuries of feet of Christian pilgrims who walked there before me. But the oldest sacred space I’ve ever been was the acropolis itself, that pagan temple to Athena, the goddess of wisdom in Athens; built around 570 BC, around the same time as the Exile to Babylon was happening.

Some of you have been to Jerusalem and stood at the Wailing Wall, the remnants of Herod’s Temple which was destroyed by the Romans. These sacred places of worship have truly dominated history.

But the Bible speaks of sacred space in a way very different than the pagan religions do.

Jeremiah 23:23-24 “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away? 24 Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.

God is OMNIPRESENT… no more in one place than in another… and GOD SEES EVERYTHING WE DO ALL THE TIME! God is as much in one place as he is in another.

Stephen picked up on this theme in his defense before the Sanhedrin in Acts 7:

Acts 7:48-50 the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: 49 “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? 50 Has not my hand made all these things?’

And as Paul says in Acts 17 in that very speech I mentioned a moment ago, to the philosophers of the Areopagus:

Acts 17:24-25 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

Every square inch of the universe belongs to GOD and every moment is a sacred one, if we see it properly:

Abraham Kuyper: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

But yet, there is such a thing as a SACRED PLACE… a SANCTUARY…

Exodus 3:5 God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Holy Ground is then a place where we can ENCOUNTER THE LIVING GOD…

This morning, I want to establish the CHRISTIAN’S WORKPLACE as a SACRED SPACE… it could be a Fortune 500 office building; it could be a laboratory; it could be a doctor’s exam room or a surgeon’s operating room; it could be a bank, or a retail store; for you teens, it could be CHICK-FIL-A or Home Depot… if you have the proper view of WORK, you can and should make your workplace as SACRED PLACE

In the Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic church had a very faulty view of WORK… sacred and secular:

Eusebius, 4th Century A.D.: “Two ways of life were given by the law of Christ to his church. The one is above nature, and beyond common human living…. Wholly and permanently separate from the common customary life of mankind, it devotes itself to the service of God alone…. Such then is the perfect form of the Christian life. And the other, more humble, more human, permits men to … have minds for farming, for trade, and the other more secular interests as well as for religion…. And a kind of secondary grade of piety is attributed to them.”

2.    Medieval Catholicism: hierarchy of holiness…

a.    “sacred”: pope, cardinals, bishops, monks, priests, nuns… full time servants of God

b.   “profane”: everybody else… lower-level work: tradesmen, clerks, secular leaders

C. Protestantism: The Sanctity of All Legitimate Types of Work

1.    Martin Luther: priesthood of all believers

Luther: “When a maid cooks and cleans and does other housework, because God’s command is there, even such a small work must be praised as a service of God far surpassing the holiness and asceticism of all monks and nuns.”

And: “Seemingly secular works are a worship of God and an obedience well-pleasing to God.”

And: “Your work is a very sacred matter. God delights in it, and through it He wants to bestow His blessing on you.”

2.    Puritans Agreed Unanimously

William Tyndale: [If we look externally] “…there is difference betwixt washing of dishes and preaching the word of God; but as touching to please God, none at all.”

William Perkins: “The action of a shepherd in keeping sheep … is as good a work before God as is the action of a judge in giving sentence, or a magistrate in ruling, or a minister in preaching.”

This morning, I want to obliterate the idea of SECULAR WORK… secular in our increasingly atheistic culture means a RELIGION-FREE ZONE… a place where God is not welcome! No Christian should ever do SECULAR WORK… for the Christian view of work is that everything done by faith in Christ, by the power of the Spirit, for the glory of God is SACRED… no matter what your employment

I want you to see your workplace as a place of WORSHIP where you can encounter the living God… where everything you put your hand to is done with excellence, as an act of piety, a magnificent sacrifice you are offering to God.

I want us Christians to be the best possible employees and employers we can possibly be, because we have read Ephesians 6:5-9 and have understood the ramifications:

Ephesians 6:5-9 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. 9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Now I am well aware that in talking about the EMPLOYEE-EMPLOYER relationship from this text, I am making a leap of interpretation… it speaks of SLAVES and MASTERS, not EMPLOYEES and EMPLOYERS… I want to talk about that openly and in far greater detail next week. But today, I want to speak of our workplace as a place of worship where, by faith in the invisible Christ and a vivid sense of the coming Judgement Day when we will give our true Master a full account for everything we’ve done while alive, I want to teach you how to work vigorously for the glory of God… BY FAITH IN THE INVISIBLE SAVIOR

I.   Understanding Work Biblically

A.  Greeks’ Faulty View: Work is Punishment

1.  Gods punished us by making us work… they relax all day long!

Greeks: considered work a curse. “The gods hated mankind, Homer argued, and out of spite condemned men to toil

2.  Two-tier concept of work: physical vs. intellectual

“Plato & Aristotle promoted a two-story concept of work—that the majority of men should do the heavy lifting so that the minority, like themselves, might engage in higher pursuits such as art, philosophy, and politics.”

B.  God a Worker, Not an Idler

1.  Bible opens with God at work

2.  Immensely creative and active… shaping a universe filled with stars, planets, sun, moon, sky, seas, dry ground, all kinds of vegetation, birds, fish, animals, creeping things, then MAN

3.  Resting on the Seventh Day

4.  Furthermore, Christ revealed that the Father never stops working

John 5:17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day

C.  Work in Eden: The Gift Given

1.  Adam and Eve given a world-embracing commission of creative labor

Genesis 1:26-28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

2.  There was a world to be explored, studied, subdued, and worked until it could reach its fullest potential… and reveal the glory of God woven into every atom

3.  So Adam’s calling was one of creative LABOR from the very beginning

Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Conclusion: work a good gift from God, not a curse and punishment because of sin!

D.  Work After the Fall: The Gift Cursed

1.  Not that “Now, Adam, you need to work” … but rather, “Now, your work will be cursed”

Genesis 3:17-19 To Adam he said, …”Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

2.  Greatest curse on work: ultimate futility!!

Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.

3.  Work, then, was carried on after the Fall… and included creative work with metallurgy and livestock

4.  The Egyptians made the Israelites’ life bitter with hard labor

Exodus 1:14 They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.

5.  After the Exodus, God regulated work after the pattern He had set at creation

Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work…

a.  Here work is COMMANDED: “Six days you shall labor”

b.  Here work is LIMITED: “On the seventh, you shall rest”

E.  Christ’s Example: Glorifying the Father by Labor

1.  Jesus works alongside His Father

John 5:17 Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

2.  Jesus imitates and obeys His Father

John 5:19 “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

3.  Christ gets joyful nourishment from laboring for the Father

John 4:34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

4.  The greatest glory the Father has ever received: The Labor of the Son

a.  Comprehensive obedience in all the work the Father gave Him to do

John 17:4 I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.

F.  Paul’s Example and Commands

1.  Paul’s hardworking example: Acts 20

a.  secular work

Acts 20:34 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.

Acts 18:3 tells us Paul was a tentmaker by trade… and worked hard with his own hands to make tents

He even worked late at night to do this so his days would be free for gospel ministry

b.  Gospel work

Acts 20:20, 31 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house….

Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

2.  Paul’s consistent commands

a.  idleness is sin… provide for your own needs & those of your family

2 Thessalonians 3:7-10 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us… “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”

b.    work is an act of worship to God

c.    Master-slave: work must not be done to “please the eye,” but to please the Lord

G.  Work in the New Heaven and New Earth

1.  In one sense, we will “enter our rest”, and “cease from our labors”

2.  But some people do not think this means we will do no creative work in heaven

Revelation 22:3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

3.  To serve God and reign with Christ in the New Heaven and New Earth means active creative labor

a.  BUT there will no longer be any curse

b.  No failed projects, no deadlines, no frustration in labor… everything we do will succeed and glorify God… we will DELIGHT in creative labor for eternity

So, how now should we work until then?

II.   Paul’s Commands to Slaves: Serve Christ in Your Work

A.  Basic Command: Obey Your Earthly Masters

Ephesians 6:5-7 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men

1.  Obedience… do what was commanded

a.  Paul: the master has the right to command the slave, and for the slave to obey

b.  This basic relationship is fundamental to authority… the God-given right to command

c.  In the American workplace, it comes down to the boss’s right to give work to the employee; that is the boss’s role, it is the boss’s right, and the employee must do what he or she has been commanded to do

d.  Obviously, as we’ve said before, this does not give the boss the right to command wicked, unbiblical things

Acts 5:29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men!

e.  As I said in my recent sermon on marriage:

God-given authority can never command God-forbidden activity

f.  BUT in every other respect, when an employee willingly and skillfully does everything the supervisor has commanded, it is glorifying to God

2.  “Earthly” masters: Greek phrase is “according to the flesh”

a.  Implication is they have control over our bodies… can command our physical existence

b.  ALSO implication that their authority is temporary and earth-bound… God alone rules over both soul and body

3.  Obey the master AS YOU WOULD OBEY CHRIST

Ephesians 6:5-7 Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. 6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. 7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men

a.  The idea is to look beyond the physical, earthly master to Christ who stands behind the master

b.  The employee is seeing the commands as really coming from Jesus, and thus the service rendered is as if it were to Christ!

c.  This can only be done by FAITH… seeing into the invisible spiritual realm:

Hebrews 11:27 By faith … Moses … persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

Applications:

Whenever your boss tells you to do something eminently reasonable for the job, you should serve him or her as if Christ Himself had given you something to do

Imagine you are waiting tables, and the owner tells you to buss someone’s table that isn’t even yours… you will get no tip for it, it isn’t the way it is usually done, but by faith in Christ, you see the command as coming from the Lord… it is in NO WAY an immoral command, and you should do it whole heartedly as if it were an act of worship to Christ

Suppose you are a nurse, and your supervisor tells you to take care of a particularly irritable patient who has a lot of needs; the tendency will be to COMPLAIN to your fellow nurses; but if by the power of the Spirit you see the command as coming from Jesus Himself, it is so much easier to do it wholeheartedly

B.  Faith-Filled Demeanor

1.  Paul says we should work quietly under authority with RESPECT and FEAR and SINCERITY OF HEART

2.  Paul actually uses the expression “fear and trembling”… the sense of having been commanded something by Almighty God—it is a matter of the greatest significance!!

3.  Sincerity of heart: wholeheartedly… with every fiber of your being

a.  The idea is “I want to give the Lord the BEST EFFORT I CAN… for his pleasure and glory!”

b.  It is so easy to be HALF-HEARTED in work… to cut corners and do the minimum just to get by

c.  It is so easy to MAIL IT IN, to work 8 to 5 and at exactly 5:00 and zero seconds to get out of Dodge as fast as possible… that mentality effects how you work through the day too… just to do the minimum to get by

d.  So much labor and workmanship and service is PATHETICALLY SHODDY these days

e.  It’s as though America lives for entertainment and recreation and free time and hobbies; work is an unwelcome interruption in that true purpose of pleasure and self-indulgent recreation

f.  We have all experienced the frustration of shoddy workmanship, of carpentry done in a slipshod manner; of electronics that don’t work after one month; of appliances that have planned obsolescence and that start to fall apart long before their time

4.  “EYE-SERVICE” and “MAN-PLEASERS” is the opposite of a worklife done by FAITH… you work better when the boss is watching you; but as soon as he walks away, you relax and become lazy again

Eye-service is an act… a smarmy deceiver telling his boss “Yes, sir, right away sir…” then making a face as he turns away and slandering his boss after he’s gone

Illus. Years ago, I had a laptop based chess program that had a hot-key you could hit that would instantly put a fake spreadsheet up if the boss was walking by; it was evidence of how deceptive employees can be… working at a much different level when the boss’s EYES are on you

BUT the life of faith is lived “AS SEEING HIM WHO IS INVISIBLE…” doing the absolute best work you can for the glory of God

5.  Every moment we live is an opportunity to glorify God with whatever we do

1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

C.  Specifics for Employees

1.  Work fully… sixty minutes of diligent labor for every hour of pay; be fully invested in the task at every moment

2.  Work honestly… do not steal from your employers; as I mentioned in the sermon on stealing, employee theft is a multi-billion dollar problem for retailers like Wal-Mart

3.  Work skillfully… develop your craft; get better and better at your job; go the extra mile; I AM NOT SPEAKING OF MAKING YOUR JOB YOUR IDOL

(fanatically committed to the career advancement that can become an idol); I’m just saying develop your skills and get better and better for the glory of God

4.  Work wisely… not every job requires a high level of craftsmanship, because it’ll take too long; know what is best for every situation;

I remember a draftsman named Pete who spent an additional two hours drawing an electrical connector so beautifully it looked like Rembrandt had drawn it; but there is a drafting convention for a connector that was perfectly acceptable and would have taken ten minutes to draw; his boss was understandably upset

Work WISELY… doing what every situation really calls for

5.  Work energetically… it’s easy to grow weary as the day drags on… especially in that hour or two after lunch; but ask the Lord through the Holy Spirit to keep you focused ALL DAY LONG!

6.  Work respectfully: Do not gossip or disrespect the boss behind his back; do not tell jokes or demeaning stories; when other employees do, do not join in

7.  Work thankfully: Be obviously and energetically thankful for the job you have; speak often your works of thankfulness to other peers, for how glad you are to have that job; or the opportunity to work at all, in such a great country, with such economic advantages

8.  Work spiritually: be mindful of God at every moment; do everything AS UNTO THE LORD… offering every moment as a sacrifice of worship

D.  Making the Gospel Attractive

1.  Paul’s concern is ultimately the glory of God in the attractiveness of the GOSPEL

2.  If an employee works like any other unbeliever, with EYE-SERVICE as a MAN-PLEASER, he will be turned off from the gospel

3.  But if he serves WHOLEHEARTEDLY in his work, he will put the gospel up on a pedestal for everyone to see:

Titus 2:9-11 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10 and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. 11 ¶ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men

4.  Paul there goes right from the service of the slaves to the display of the gospel

5.  WORKPLACE EVANGELISM is one of the most effective ways we Christians can reach out to non-Christians with the Good News;

a.  American society has become very closed-off and private

b.  It is very hard to talk to strangers

c.  People in neighborhoods don’t know each other as much as they did when I was growing up; they have electronic entertainment and other things that enable them to withdraw into their castle and pull up the drawbridge; neighbors seem almost surprised when you talk to them… it’s not IMPOSSIBLE in the neighborhoods, just difficult

d.  Out in public, with total strangers, you can share the gospel, but people find it strange and feel threatened to be approached by a total stranger

e.  Even if you do have a good conversation, it’s hard to follow up, because you’ll not see them again

f.  BUT at the workplace, you can build LONG-TERM and close relationships with non-Christians

g.  BY HOW DILIGENTLY you work, by how much you respect the supervisor, by how much you glorify God in every moment of time, you will ADORN THE GOSPEL… you will make it APPEALING to the people who are watching

6.  AND Christian slaves are to give Christian masters even better service because they are brothers:

1 Timothy 6:1-2 All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2 Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them.

E.  An Eye Toward Judgment Day

1.  All of this is BY FAITH… we see the INVISIBLE CHRIST behind our boss’s orders

2.  AND we see the INVISIBLE JUDGMENT DAY as well, when we will be fully rewarded for our faith-filled service

Ephesians 6:7-8 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

3.  We should be LIVING FOR REWARDS… the rewards our true Master, our Sovereign King will give on Judgment Day

Matthew 25:21 His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

1 Corinthians 4:5 He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

4.  The lowest slaves on earth who were faithful to the Master will receive the highest rewards in heaven; the more you humbled yourself and became obedient, the most highly exalted you will be

Matthew 23:12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Your earthly master may be brutally unfair, depriving you of wages and of commendation for the good work you do… Christ, your true master, will not miss anything

Hebrews 6:10 God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.

“Inheritance” = a piece of the New Heaven and New Earth; an eternal possession, based on faithfulness to Christ here on earth

III.   Paul’s Commands to Masters: Deal Fairly with Slaves

Ephesians 6:9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

A.  Paul Connects the Commands to the Masters with What He Just Said to the Slaves

“Treat them IN THE SAME WAY…” that is, by faith, seeing the spiritual reality of the situation; understanding Jesus in the relationship

1.  BY FAITH, see Christ in your slave

2.  BY FAITH, see Christ as your true master

B.  Understand Your True Master: Christ

1.  It is easy for the master to lose perspective

2.  He may play the role of tyrant and abuse his slaves

3.  DO NOT THREATEN THEM… do not abuse them!!

In 1853, Harriet Beecher Stowe published the second edition of her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a vividly dramatic depiction of the abuses of African people in American slavery, the deluxe edition was published with artistic renditions of many of the most poignant scenes from the book; in one of the drawings, the wicked master Simon Legree is beating Tom savagely, while Tom is praying and crying aloud to Jesus… in the artistic rendition, Jesus is watching the beating though unseen by Simon Legree

Ephesians 6:9 reminds every master that Jesus watches everything he does to the slave… and that there will be an accounting for it on Judgment Day

C.  Understand Your Future: Standing Before an Impartial Judge

1.  So many unjust structures were set up in the American South… wicked masters would commit crimes against slaves, but no court system would ever touch them, because they were part of the same corruption… the ultimately wicked “good old boy” network

2.  But Judgement Day is the great leveler

a.  The text says that with Christ, there is NO PARTIALITY… he does not fear man, he will judge with righteousness and justice

Isaiah 11:3-5 He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

Revelation 20:11-12 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.

Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.

Did you hear that? The dead, “great and small” are arraigned before the throne for justice

The SIMON LEGREEs of the world will face the perfect justice of Christ and he cannot be bought, bribed, intimidated, deterred, distracted by the tricks of a clever lawyer… he will judge every master with JUSTICE

D.  Present Ethics

1.  Bosses should carry themselves humbly toward their employees, mindful of the fact that they are no better than their workers

2.  Supervisors should make sure the workplace is a fair and equitable environment in which every employee has a chance to excel and not be harassed or abused

3.  Supervisors should evaluate the performance of their workers with justice and equity, rewarding each for his service

4.  Workers should get a reasonable wage for the labor they do

Reading an article about Asian “sweatshops”… in a region of the world in which there is a surplus and desperate supply of manual labor, companies can EXPLOIT their workers

Sweatshops are work environments in which there are long hours, low pay, and unsafe and unhealthy working conditions; policies may limit bathroom breaks and eliminate all talking between employees; at worst, physical violence is used

Companies like Gap, Liz Claiborne, Kathie Lee Gifford, Nike, and Wal-Mart have all come under scrutiny and received criticism for marketing good produced in sweatshops

The greatest INJUSTICE in the workplace is insufficient pay:

James 5:4 Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty.

The chance of INJUSTICE in wages is greater in an age of undocumented people who are desperate for work… they can easily be exploited

Refugees that are desperate to survive can be hired and fired with no recourse, because they are terrified to go to the police!! But God hears their cries

5.  Implication is treat your slaves the way you would want to be treated

a.  Give words of praise and encouragement

b.  Be KIND… like Boaz was to Ruth, speaking kindly to her, making sure she was protected and well-compensated for her labor

Colossians 4:1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

c.  “what is right and fair” = wages for labor

d.  “what is right and fair” = respect and commendation for a job well done

e.  “what is right and fair” = how you would want to be treated if the situation were reversed

E.  Understand Your Future: A Full Account

Colossians 3:25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

Ephesians 6:9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

“No favoritism” = both Master and slave will be judged based on how they handled their roles

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

IV.   Application: Work Made a Sacred Offering

A.  Trust in Christ

1.  All work must first and foremost come SECOND to faith in Christ

John 6:28-29 Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?”
29 Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

2.  Trust in Christ before anything else, that your life may then become a fragrant offering to God

B.  Offer Your Work Up to God Every Day!

C.  Big Picture: A Sense of Divine Calling

1.    Every Christian “called” by God to a certain employment

William Perkins: “A vocation or calling is a certain kind of life, ordained and imposed on man by God, for the common good…. Every person of every degree, state, sex, or condition without exception must have some personal and particular calling to walk in.”

Have a sense from God of your sacred calling from God… your spiritual gifts, your training, your talent, your education… all of it given up to God in a CAREER which develops more and more for the glory of God!